


Neighbors

by Boku_wa_Tobi



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-05-10 23:56:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5605855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boku_wa_Tobi/pseuds/Boku_wa_Tobi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neighbors aren't always as they seem.... Neighborhood from hell</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Life... Is it really that difficult? I agree it's hard, we always don't make the right choices, I know I sure as hell haven't made the best choices in my life. Come to think of it, every choice I have ever made has fucked me over in one way or another, but I still have no desire to off myself. I keep fighting, hoping the next choice I make will be a good choice. It can't hurt to stick around and see what happens. 'You live and you learn', right? For example, I have learned that I will never live in an apartment complex again. Why? The infestation of neighbors. Don't get me wrong, not all neighbors are bad, hell, sometimes they are helpful, and even make good company occasionally, but not for me anymore.  
I'm not sure why I feel this way, why I just like to be left alone. Perhaps, it is just the particular neighbors I have come in contact with that make me feel that way. Perhaps it is the environment in which I was raised, my parents sucked, they are uneducated and antisocial hermits, who hate to be bothered by the rest of the human race as well. Nah, that can't be it. Growing up I was very outgoing. I liked to meet and talk with new people on a daily basis. I had friends that I devoted time to, and I enjoyed a social life and learning what I can from reading or speaking with others. But all that has faded, particularly since I met the most neediest, annoying neighbor, it has ever been my displeasure to know. Let's call him Jim.  
It was a few years ago when I moved into my apartment complex. Everything looked so bright, people seemed nice, and extra commodities were promising. The apartment cost is a little pricey, but it's the cheapest around my area. The apartment is equipped with a washer and dryer set, microwave, refrigerator, and other necessary appliances. There are three swimming pools, two gyms, and two playgrounds for the community children, albeit a bit run down, but still in good enough shape to serve their purpose.  
Our building is closest to the back gate, which is where the bus comes to pick up and drop off the children who live closest to the back of the complex. I quickly learned that these gates are never in proper working condition, so our so- called "gated community" is always open, with a sign that says "welcome home". It should've said "Welcome strangers, our homes are open to you" because the fucking locks don't work for shit.  
I met Jim the first week in March that year, the first time I walked my seven year old son, Adrian, to the bus stop to assure he got on the correct bus. Jim has two sons also, around the same age as Adrian, Christopher and Travis, that he would walk to the bus stop every morning. Some of the kids would run around wildly, playing tag, others would climb on the gate, and almost all of them had horrible mouths, except for Christopher and Travis. Jim's boy's are very well mannered and rational, and Adrian quickly befriended them. With the boys taking such a quick liking to each other, Jim and I felt obligated to talk and get to know one another. That's how it started.  
Every morning I would walk Adrian to the bus stop anxious to meet and talk with Jim. His personality is strong, but he is righteous in his beliefs and opinions. Jim also has a great sense of humor, very similar to mine, a bit dark and raunchy at times, but with a comical outlook. I would spend an hour every morning after the bus left, just standing outside talking to Jim. I had made a real, solid friend in this new neighborhood. We exchanged numbers to carry on phone conversations, and for the kids as well.  
Jim began inviting me over to his apartment with Adrian, so that we can hang out while the boys played whatever it is that seven and eight year old boys would play. Turns out, our families were in a similar situation. Jim had been working, but lost his job due to being out on medical leave for such a long time, and didn't qualify for disability. I was laid off from my job and could not find another one, forcing my family and I to pick up and move to the closest place we would have support, with my wife Serena's family. I had found some part-time and temporary work here and there, but realized that I couldn't find anything permanent. Then a few months after we moved into the apartment, Serena had landed a decent job with decent pay for someone with little experience and no education. This gave me the opportunity to enroll back into school and focus on obtaining a career in a versatile field. Jim's wife, Caitlin, was working to support Jim and his children as well. She maintains a team leader position at the airport, in the baggage area, where she had been employed for about eight years. Caitlin and Serena have very similar personalities as well. Both are over skeptical, and somewhat antisocial. Jim and I would try to get Serena and Caitlin to hang out with us, but they were too quiet, and just didn't get a feel for one another.  
When summer came we would walk the boys over to the playgrounds and the swimming pools. This gave us the opportunity to get out and chill away from the wives, and gave me the opportunity to get a better feel for the kind of community I had been living in. We have a lot of exchange students from China, who attend the flight schools in the area. They make good use of the commodities in the complex, mostly because while they are here they can't drive. They walk to the Wal-Mart to shop, which is the equivalent distance of a couple of blocks away from the apartment complex, and they make use of the commodities frequently for entertainment/exercise. Some of the other people in the complex are ghetto, or maybe they are just simple idiots, and others were fairly pleasant at first introduction. They were all nothing like Jim though.  
School started that fall, and with classes and trying to work part time, I didn't get to hang out with my good friend as often as I would have liked to, but he was very understanding and we still talked on the phone and saw each other when we could. I only took four classes that semester so I had a little bit of time to play with. Jim was into cars, a true grease monkey, he even took a position part time at an auto parts store just for the discounts. He would spend hours watching D.I.Y. fix 'em up videos, when he wasn't watching comedy videos. I have to say, I really didn't care for many of Jim's entertainment preferences, as I'm sure he didn't care much for mine. We both like to read, watch television, write, and look up stuff on the internet, but very different things. I keep talking about my favorite shows to a minimum, I'd go as far as to name the show and say i think it is a good show, but i would not go into detail. Jim however, would spend hours discussing a book, character, or show, that I don't care for, in great detail and then talk about the author. Of course I listen and jump in occasionally to keep engaged in the conversation and try to analyze Jim's perspective on the book or show, fascinated by how much this guy got into it.  
I gave in and watched one episode of a show that Jim highly recommended, Game of Thrones. Jim has read all of the books, as well as has seen all of the shows, and is currently waiting for the next book to come out, that has already been delayed a year or more. Apparently, the author, George R. Martin, is old, and may be sick, because everyone says, they are hoping he finishes it before he dies. That's not comforting, because from what I have analyzed about the author from Jim's over zealous discussions of the author, is that the author loves to disappoint his fans. He kills off the crowd-drawing characters, he's made them wait for the previous book, and in my brain an all-time great scheme of disappointment would be to die and leave the work unfinished.  
I must admit that even the very first episode hit off with feuding families, selling off of a young woman as a sex slave to barbarians, and incest sex scenes, if you're into that kind of shit. Personally, it's a bit mundane, and does not stimulate my intellect. I really couldn't get into it. I communicated that to Jim, but he still feels the need to describe the same scenes and the torture of waiting for the next book over and over again. I listen, like a good friend would.  
My next semester, I took on six fairly heavy classes. I saw less and less of Jim, and less and less of Serena, Adrian, and my daughter Laurena. Taking on that many classes after years of not being in school is stressful. Serena began to take offense to me distancing myself. We are fighting often at this time and I really don't like being in the house. The first large fight Serena and I had, I left and went to Jim's. I had been cigarette free for seven years at the time, but I picked it back up that day, and continued to smoke until recently. I began to befriend some of the Chinese exchange students, and would go to the gym with them, or even visit them at their apartments to watch movies with them. At night, I would go home when Serena was asleep, or I would stay at Jim's. Tobi was not a good boy.  
One night in March, I couldn't sleep. I was stressed about midterms and final projects, Serena and I were not on good terms, the kids were asleep, and I couldn't find anything to do that would occupy my mind. I leave the apartment.  
The walk to the gym is a bit chilly, but the night sky is clear. Some people don't know how to close their shades at night, with lights on in their apartments I can see everything. The smell of rice drifts out of apartment windows and dances on the air molecules around me, reminding me that I hadn't eaten. The gym light is on and the door is propped open a bit by a twenty-five pound free-weight. I walk in and get on a treadmill to begin my warm up jog. The only other person in there is one of the Chinese students, Zhu, using the weight machines to work his arms. I stick to my routine as he sticks to his. I watch him get up after every set to take a sip of water out of the fountain, and he watches me as I jog. We are alone, and both of us remain silent.  
I move from the treadmill and follow his routine on the machines to work my arms and chest, so that we do not overlap and throw one another off. Only the sound of the machines clanking echoes through the lonely gym for the fourty-five minutes we work on the machines. Zhu moves over to the door and picks the free weight to put it away. I finish my set, sit on the machine for a minute and sigh, satisfied with the work out and the fact that I am beginning to relax and feel tired. I get up to finish with another mile jog on the treadmill. Zhu walks over toward me. He looks at me puzzled, then hops on the treadmill next to me. "What is your name?", he asks me nonchalantly.  
"Tobi, who are you?", I retorted.  
"I'm Zhu. Where are you from? Do you have a family?"  
"I'm from New York, yes I have a family, and yes I speak fluent English."  
Zhu presses the stop button on the treadmill then sighs and climbs off. He walks over to the men's bathroom. He turns around to look at me one last time, then nods his head toward the bathroom in an inviting way.  
I can feel my body tense, preparing to fight, and hit the stop button on the treadmill. Aggravated that my relaxation has abruptly come to a halt, leaving me stressed again, I quickly made my way to the bathroom to get this squabble done and over with. Whatever this guy's problem is, he is not ruining what I have left of my night. In the bathroom, there were two urinals along the wall to my left and a standard size stall directly following them. A sink and counter with a mirror sits opposite the urinals along the right wall. Zhu stood near the handicapped stall along the back wall, looking relaxed. I walked toward him, then positioned myself in a combat ready stance. Zhu shook his head and chuckled, "What are you doing?", he asked me.  
Confusion set on my face, and the little bit of reality I had a grasp on slipped out of my hands when he grabbed me, pulled me into the handicap stall, pushed me against the wall and pressed his lips hard against mine. In shock, and with my defenses down, his tongue was able to barrage through my lips to pillage the depths of my mouth. I thought of Serena, our children, what I was doing, and even that I am contemplating whether I like it or not. Isn't this cheating? Can it be considered cheating? If I stop it and walk away right now, I have done nothing, and no one is around to say otherwise...  
In that moment, I exhaled and began to kiss him back. He let one of his hands drop to caress me through my pants. In return, I reached up the leg opening in his shorts and began massaging him, and even caressing and gently poking a finger at his entrance. He breaks the kiss, smiling. " Do you want me?", he asks me slyly. I looked down at the stiff bulge in my pants, then back to him, "Isn't that obvious?", is my response. Zhu fumbled, hastily unfastening my pants and sliding them down enough to let my member out while sliding his shorts off at the same time. He pulls me on top of him, using a hand to guide me toward his entrance where he teases me. He stops momentarily, getting really quiet and tilting his head in the direction of the door, listening to be sure we are still alone.  
"Are you kidding? Who cares? We've come this far," I whisper to him and push myself into him.  
Walking home from the gym, I feel warm against the cold air, and I catch myself unable to stop smiling.

The apartment is low lit by a small lamp in the living room and silent. Everyone in the apartment is still asleep and upon pulling my phone out of my pocket, I see there are no texts on my phone from Serena wondering where I am. What happened tonight? Am I in some sort of dream? A time warp? The bedroom door is slightly cracked open. I quietly push it open to slip into the room and then close it behind me. Serena is in bed, sleeping peacefully, and the tension in the room is faded. Pulling the covers back, I climb into bed next to Serena and fall asleep.

In the morning, of course the tension sets in again. I text Jim to see if he is awake yet, so that I can leave and spend the day at his apartment.  
"Tobi, did you actually stay home last night and sleep for once?" Serena spits the question at me, but I can see the relief in her face when I tell her yes.  
Still no reply from Jim, he must be sleeping still, oh well. "Serena, you want to take the kids out somewhere?"  
"Like where?"  
"I don't know, your choice babe," I leave the decision up to her.  
The sun is shining, the sky is clear except a few cloud wisps that float through the blue sky and the air is cool. We take the kids to the city's recreational park to play rather than the small playgrounds in the complex. Laurena wants me to pick her up and walk her along the monkey bars, and Adrian wants me to play tag with him.  
"The kids miss their dad, you are never home much anymore and you leave me with them all of the time. They did nothing to deserve that," Serena says lowly when I come back around to take a breather.  
"Yea, well if you weren't there, I'd probably be there a lot more," I commented to her before taking off to play with Adrian again.  
"Tobi, I don't want to fight today," she requested when I came back to her and Laurena and sat on the bench.  
"I don't either," I agreed. I am too tired for this shit, and I'm not sure I'm in the right state of mind at this moment, the last thing I need is a fight adding more stress.  
Jim finally returns a text while we are at the restaurant feeding the kids lunch.  
"Babe, I'm going to hang with Jim for a couple of hours when we get back, OK?"  
"Great, that means you'll be over there all night again," she sounds disappointed.  
"No, I promise I will be only a couple of hours."  
When I get to Jim's he puts a movie on he wants me to see, because he really enjoyed it. Again, The movie is OK, but not something I'm crazy for. We sit on his porch and smoke cigarettes, talking and watching YouTube videos on his phone. I'm OK with it, I'm with my friend, not in a house full of stress, but I let the time slip away from me. I checked my phone later and saw a few texts from Serena, one saying "well I guess you decided a couple of hours wasn't enough time to be away from your family." I roll my eyes and sigh, clicking the lock button on my phone, and I put it away in my pocket.  
"Jim, dude, I gotta go, Serena is sending me accusing texts."  
"OK, man, give me a call tomorrow if you can."  
I had every opportunity to tell Jim about my encounter the previous night, but I didn't. I'm not sure how he would take it, yet I considered him my best friend.  
I walk into my apartment, bracing myself for the attack.  
"A couple of hours? It's been five hours, Tobi. You were at Jim's this whole time? You must really hate your family."  
"I'm sorry, we were talking and watching stupid videos and the time just passed us by."  
"Well, now I have no time left to spend with you tonight, I guess I'll just sit on the back burner and wait for my turn to spend time with you. Why are you like this?"  
"Serena, I don't hate you, I don't hate our family, I'm just under a lot of stress, and i know I have been distancing myself from the family, but it's because you make assumptions that I have something against you and you add more stress on me."  
"You came out and told me you don't love me the other day, and you told me I wasn't attractive."  
"You are, and I do love you, you just really pissed me off. You are always going through my mail, my texts, my search history, even if there is nothing on there for you to find. Can we not go into this tonight, please? I'm tired, I want to enjoy whatever little bit of time we do have left tonight."  
"Oh, you mean sit on the couch together, turn on a movie, and you fall asleep within five minutes? Is that how you enjoy your time with me?" It's true, I do sit on the couch with her, put on a movie or show, and within five to ten minutes, I'm out cold. I think she takes it the wrong way. She probably thinks that the reason I pass out when spending time with her is because I am bored of her, but that's not the case. Stress wears me out and if I am overwhelmed I start feeling drained. I feel well tonight though, I just have to figure out how to make her feel like she is beautiful, especially after the damage I have caused. If I make love to her, will that suffice? I pull her close to me and begin to kiss her passionately, undressing her as I caress her.  
"Just because we have sex doesn't mean that I'm instantly going to feel beautiful or special, and it definitely doesn't mean I forgive you, Tobei." Ugh, she pronounced my name the way it is originally spelled, and deterred my mood a bit with what she said. She 's undressed in front of me, the room is quiet and there are no lights on, save the light coming from the television screen, my pants are to my knees, but I'm falling limp with that comment. Upset, I gently push her away and grab for my pants. She stops me from pulling my pants up and moves her head down, wrapping her lips around my cock. I become instantly hard again. She kisses the head and slurps the whole thing into her mouth to the back of her throat, massaging my balls with her hand. The pressure from the suction her mouth is creating is agonizingly pleasurable. If she continues this, I might blow. I stop her, position to lay her on the couch, move down, and kiss her clit while gently tucking my fingers inside of her. It must have been a while since I have paid her any attention. She is very wet and desperate in her moans. I can feel her gushing on my fingers.  
"Annnhhh Tobi, I want... you... in... me..." she begs between her panting. I climb on top of her and she fully accepts me into her. I hear her moans getting louder and I feel her getting wetter with each thrust into her. My mind began to wander a bit, thinking about the previous night with Zhu in the gym. The memory of how passionate he was, how he yearned for me to give my body fully to him, how tight he was, how powerful his release was when he came all over my chest and abdomen, and how quickly I came inside of him after.  
"I-ku... tsu...moridesu...iku," That thought did it for me. I thrust myself so deep inside of her and spilled myself, a lot of myself. I took off my shirt for her to use to clean up and then got up off the couch to grab our vapors, electronic cigarettes, so we could hit those before falling asleep together on the couch. We stopped smoking real cigarettes and picked up smoking electronic cigarettes. They helped with stress and cravings. I hate the smell of real cigarettes, it's such a turn off. I even introduced the vapor to Jim, who smokes like a chimney. He really took a liking to it, quitting cigarettes himself.  
I continue to go to the gym, if not every night, every other night. The workout relaxes me and with my tension eased at least, I am able to be a much better person to Serena. Although I still hang out with Jim quite a bit, and going to the gym almost every night doesn't help her suspicions. Jim knew about the tension between Serena and I, he even played friend to Serena when she called him for someone to talk to. She did have a bit of an attitude toward Jim, but he still listened. Jim has an underlying reason for talking with Serena and playing a friend to her. He is trying to separate us. Telling me it will be better for me to be away from her and on my own. At the time I didn't know it, but he and Caitlin are miserable too, a lot of it comes from the fact that Jim doesn't want to go back to work, even to his part time job. He prefers to rely on someone, lover or friend, to care for him. Naive to what Jim is doing, I still hang out with him every day.


	2. Caught

With the stress building and tension buzzing loudly, alcohol became a good friend of mine as well. The only downside is, I'm a sloppy drunk. On a hot summer's night in July, I sat out on my balcony listening to music, playing on my computer, and drinking. The kids were in bed sleeping and Serena had gone to visit her sister. A couple of my Chinese, flight student friends were on their way home from the gym, walking by my apartment. I turned the laptop computer off and brought it back in the house. Grabbing for a clean tee-shirt out of the clean clothes basket while trying to slip my shoes on, then leaving the apartment to walk over to the building directly behind mine.  
Facing the stairs, I moan desperately. I begin to make my way up the first flight of stairs agonizingly anticipating reaching the top, but knowing that there are two more flights of stairs to conquer in this condition and in this heat. I try to put a jump in my step going up the next flight as fast as I can to get it over with. On the third flight, I grab for the railing and literally pull my drunk ass up the stairs. When I reach the top, I move toward the right, to my friend's door, and knock. Shen answers.  
"Hey man. What are you doing?" He asks me.  
"I'm bored dude, what are you doing?"  
"They are trying to clean up in there, but I will come out and hang out with you, I am not busy now."  
We walk down by the lake to skip stones, talk, and laugh. Shen is a great friend. I could never do anything to offend or hurt the guy, because he is just a very respectful and respectable person. We talked about our training in Martial Arts. Shen tells me he was taught some JiuJitsu, something I am familiar with.  
"You want to play JiuJitsu?"  
"Sure, I'll play," I agree.  
We walk over to the small gym room, across the way from my apartment building to play. In my condition, I end up tapping out quite a few times. We sit and take a breather after playing for about and hour, and I lean back, laying my head against his chest.  
"You are too drunk to beat me tonight," Shen chuckles when making this comment.  
"Shut up dude, I let you win, you wouldn't like it if I pinned you down."  
"Tobei, you can do whatever you want to me," he says invitingly.  
I sat up and turned around to face him, my lips inches away from his.  
"Anything?"  
He moves his face in closer to mine, I can feel his breath on my lips.  
"Yes, Tobei, anything..."  
We sway slightly and our lips lock. I'm almost at blackout point, but I'm still functioning. I stand to turn out the lights in the gym, and pull my pants down as he pulls his pants off. I move in between his legs, pushing them out slightly with my knees, and I drop my hand to feel his long hard shaft.  
"What are you talking about, Chinese guys have small dicks? Well then, you have a pretty big dick for a Chinese guy..."  
With it grasped in my hand, I moved down and attempted to take it into my mouth. I pulled, licked, kissing him up and down his shaft, and teased him until he begged me to enter him. I pulled his legs up to better position myself at his entrance, then slowly worked my way in, as to no cause him any pain. I could feel him tightening around my cock with every push, trying to hold himself back.  
"Call my name," I told him.  
"Nnnmmmm... Tobei... It's ok, go faster..."  
"Faster?"  
"Mmmnnn, yea, harder Tobei, come deep..."  
"What is this? Come on command, Shen? Ah"  
"Stop, Tobei, I'm going to come, please stop."  
"Nnnaaaggnnhhh, why... stop?"  
"It will make a mess, Tobei, stop."  
I didn't stop. I couldn't stop, because I was about to release myself. I pushed myself deep and moved in shorter thrusts inside of him. He let go panting for me to stop before he threw his head back and came so hard he splashed my neck and jaw.  
I can't hold back anymore. Feeling every muscle in his body tighten when he released sent me over the edge. I'm about to go and just before I do he tells me, "Please don't come inside of me."  
"Are you serious?" I pull myself out just as I start coming and blow on his chest and neck. He licks the few drops that land on his lips. I ask him about his life back in China as we get dressed, and he tells me he has a fiancee back in China. I punch him in the face and tell him not to cheat on her. In a severely crippled state of mind, I went home, feeling myself fall faint and the world around me fading to black.  
I haven't heard from Shen since, and that kind of did break me. He was a good friend.

I wake up to Adrian and Laurena playing in the living room. I get up, pulling my way to the kitchen along the wall, and give them cereal for breakfast. Serena isn't home yet. I sluggishly move to the bathroom to shower. I slowly pull my clothes off of my body, step sloppily in the shower, and pry the faucet to turn the water on.  
I receive a text from Jim after my shower that says, 'What were you doing in the gym last night?'  
Shit! Was he really lurking around the gym, or my apartment? He can't know about this shit, he'll think I'm weird finding pleasure being with another man sexually.

A knock upon the door startles me, disrupting my panic, until I open the door and there is Jim. I can't even look him in the face. Looking at the floor, I step aside to let him pass through. He enters, staring at me intensely. His eyes wide and his face twisted into a maniacal smile. Unable to take the pressure anymore, I broke down and told Jim, "I was in the Jim last night, and I made love to Shen. I did not mean for this to happen, and I certainly did not mean for anyone to see."  
"What are you talking about? I just heard the gym door slam shut and I saw you walk out, but holy shit, dude. Did you really?"  
I felt defeated and confused. He continued in a flirtatious tone, "I didn't know you swung that way."   
"I couldn't help myself," I stated shamefully.   
"Yea, I've been thinking about getting away from Caitlin for some time now too. We should totally get an apartment together and we can meet each other's needs."   
I quickly understand what he means. I pay all of the bills and he repays me with sexual favors.   
I do not find Jim sexually attractive, although I admire his personality. I love him more like a brother and could never see myself in the bed with him. Though, I said the same thing about Shen, and I blew that, but at least I was sexually attracted to Shen.   
**


	3. Chapter 3

Months go by, Serena and I have split, and I am now in the apartment alone. Jim's pressure becomes more intense. Things become more sour between he and Caitlin, as he is still out of work and spending Caitlin's money on unnecessary products. Most of the time I tend to be thrown in the middle of all of their fights by Jim, who expects me to take his side. It doesn't help that Jim has been trying to apply for disability and found a doctor who will diagnose him with whatever he deems appropriate and prescribe him all of the drugs he wants. He has become ornery and ignorantly violent, showing aggression when people do not side with him. I can't do this anymore. Jim is my friend, but the Jim who I first met, not this stumbling shell of a man who talks about drugs and how easy it is to get them, trying to screw over the system by getting disability, and sales pitches for products he really likes in hopes that people will buy them for him. I look at Caitlin sympathetically and walk away.  
"What the fuck, you're no friend you fucker, you won't even get an apartment with me, and now you're going to take her side."  
I keep walking. 'The guy is trying to use me.' The thought pulled at my chest. I swallowed back the cry lumping in my throat. I stopped in front of my apartment, but only looked at the vacated windows and continued around the corner. Again, I came to a stop, in front of the apartment my friend's from China occupied, but unfamiliar faces walked in front of the building and on the balconies. Shen, Tian, and Zhu, along with their room mates, have finished their studies and transferred back to China. I felt utterly alone. Signed on with a temp agency, I was working now, and began looking for other places to live. Though the rent I paid at the apartment was fairly high, I'll have to wait to get my taxes back, and that won't be much if I'm filing single with no dependents.

It's Saturday, Serena is working so I am able to visit with my children. Adrian has gone to a friend's house. Laurena and I are playing with her toys and watching her kids' TV shows. Just seeing her smile makes me happy, I miss interacting with the kids. My sunshine is ripped away in an instant when Jim comes barging through my unlocked door stumbling and falling, while yelling and bloodied up.  
Laurena takes one look at him and begins to scream and cry. I get Jim to the couch then pick up Laurena, carrying her to her room with her toys.  
"Dude, What the fuck happened to you? Did someone break into your apartment," I asked. Jim only shook his head no.  
"Don't tell me Caitlin did this, I thought she works on Saturdays."  
"She is at work," he replies in a crackled whisper. "I did this to myself. I remember feeling frustrated and then I blacked out and started beating the shit out of myself," he continued.  
"What the fuck, dude! Do you think that is ok? Laurena knows you and loves you like an uncle and you come over here looking like that, making us think you are being attacked. My little girl is scared to death for and of you, and you tell me you just fucking snapped and did this to yourself. I think you should go home..." I am finished, I have nothing else to say to the man. Any bit of respect I had for him, is gone. Jim leaves.  
An hour later he calls me trying to apologize. I am sympathetic toward him but not forgiving.

I wish it had only stopped there, but it didn't.  
It's about 23:00, and a frantic knock raps upon my door. I open it to see Caitlin standing there wide-eyed and shaking. My defenses quickly go up.  
"What's going on?"  
"It's Jim, he's slumped over and not responding."  
'The dude needs to lay off the drugs,' is the thought that runs through my head, but I leave the apartment with Caitlin. When we arrive at Jim and Caitlin's apartment, there he is, just the way Caitlin described him. I'm exhausted, but I manage to muster up enough strength to carry Jim down to the car and throw him in the front seat. Caitlin gets in the back and we take off to the hospital. Luckily the hospital is about a three minute ride from the apartment complex, however, I am not looking forward to picking this dude up again and carrying him into the emergency room. We sit in the emergency room for the next five hours, with Jim laying in the bed and the nurses and doctors running tests on him. The end result... There's nothing wrong with him. He's hocked up on all kinds of medications and has insomnia... in short, he's just fucked up and tired. I called into work, I would have had to be there at 07:00 and I was just leaving the hospital with Jim and Caitlin at 05:00. On our way back to the apartment, Jim asked me to stop by Dunkin Donuts to get him something. 'Are you fucking serious, dude...' the thought screamed in my head. Poor Caitlin was in the back swooning over Jim, and vocalizing her irritation that the doctors "treated him like shit". I have to get the fuck out of this situation, I have to runaway, hide, move.... that's it, I have to move. Where am I going to go?  
*** I began searching for apartments, houses, rooms for rent, pretty much anything. I called my mother but she traded her four bedroom duplex for a small one bedroom apartment. I began applying for jobs out of state and outside of the country.

How the fuck can I make this end? '... OK, the guy I thought to be my best friend is now helpless, he can hardly walk, he's still out of work and fucked up on scripts... Not only has he stopped helping Caitlin around the house, but he can't even take care of his own kids... and the worst part is...' My cell phone rings and it's Jim.  
"Dude, you think you can run me over to the auto parts store so I can look around?"  
I roll my eyes and sigh. '... He can't drive.' Or don't want to drive... and he calls me every day to take him places, usually to the auto parts store, where he used to work, so he can hang around, talk to the staff, and look at parts, for hours.  
"What? Sorry dude, Serena took the car."  
"What are you talking about? I saw the car down there parked in front of your apartment."  
"Oh... She didn't come get it yet..."  
"Good this is a perfect opportunity to get you out of the house."  
'But... I don't wanna leave my house!!!' The thought screams in my head. How about that... I really don't want to leave my house. I don't want to go out, I don't want to talk to people, or even see anyone. At that moment, I realize that I haven't even been going to the store to buy food. I buy a little bit and make it last as long as I can, to avoid having to go out too soon after. It happened. I have become my father. A broken down man, shattered from the inside out.  
"Tobi? You still there?"  
"Yea, I'm here. I don't know dude, Serena is supposed to come and get the car, she'll be pissed if I am not here."  
"Since when do you give a shit if you piss her off?"  
'She has my children...' I think to myself.  
"Whatever dude, I'll find another ride since you're too whipped to tell her she can't have the car." Jim hangs up.  
I set my phone on the counter and run over to lock my door, then I run through the house and turn off any lights that are on and close the shades. Sitting on the floor in front of my couch, I pull my knees to my chest, wrap my arms around them, and lay my head against them.  
I raise my left arm to see my cat, Sid, rubbing against my left leg. She curls up beside me, and i put my arm back down and close my eyes again.

'Well, she doesn't have all of my kids, at least I got you Sid,' I think to myself.   
***  
Thoughts of the first time I brought Sid and her brother Bora home flood my mind. I took a position working in an emergency animal clinic as a tech. A man came in with a litter of kittens that we aged to be about two weeks old. There were five kittens, and each tech on that night took one, but mine was the package deal, I got the two who lay cuddling together. I got a bottle and kitten formula from the hospital, taking care of them throughout my shift. My shift ended at three o'clock in the morning. The veterinarian on duty gave me a few cans of formula to get me through the next few days. I packed everything up, grabbed my new babies, and drove home.   
When I arrived home, I carried the bag of kitten formula and bottles in, along with the cats. I broke out the bottle and tried to feed them some more before going to bed. They were so tiny, I was afraid to leave them in the apartment alone, especially if Stacy broke out of her crate. Stacy was my catahoula leopard. She ran wild when she had freedom in the house. Eventually Stacy was given to a friend of mine who moved and had acres of land for her to run around on, because Serena couldn't stand to take care of her, and I was hardly home.  
I brought Sid and Bora into my bedroom. The tiny meows woke Serena.   
"You brought home a cat?" She mumbled. "Oh, cats.." She corrected herself.   
I turned on the light near the sink and assisted the kittens with their bathroom duties, then turned the light off, and carried them to the bed.   
I bottle fed the kittens for the next two weeks, incorporating soft food mixed with formula to bottle break them.   
Sid got out once, at about a year old, and came back pregnant. I was going to let her have the kittens and help her care for them. She was in labor for two days, longer than she should have been. I was worried something was going to happen to her, but I couldn't afford to take her to the emergency clinic because at that time I wasn't working, and she wan't established at a vet, I was just caring for her on my own, with help here and there. She would have needed a C-section though, something I am unable to perform, or afford.   
Serena and I took the kids shopping. When we came back, Serena had taken the kids in the apartment while I gathered most of the groceries. She came running back out side and said, "Dead cat."   
I dropped the groceries and ran into the apartment, thinking that Sid had died. Entering the apartment, I saw Sid and Bora frantically trying to get a couple of the baby kittens to move. I look at Sid, and I will never forget the look she gave me. The look of devastation and despair. Bora also looked to me for help. Sid had given birth to a litter of four dead kittens. I realized quickly that one of the kittens was very big, and that is probably what caused the two day labor and the strain on the birth. Sid spent the next week in my arms, crying, cats do cry and mourn. I couldn't put her down to do anything, she would just climb back up my leg and get into my arms again.   
***  
A knock at my door startled Sid. She growled and jumped over me. I had fallen asleep on the floor next to my cat. I pulled myself up and slowly made my way to the door to peek through the peep-hole. It's 'no nii-chan'. He is not my real brother, but we call each other brothers. He works for a Japanese sushi chain and brings me food whenever he has left overs. I tell him not to worry about bringing it to me, but he does anyway. It saves me from having to go to the store and cook. I don't see no nii-chan much because he works a lot. I open the door and let him in.  
"Whoa, it's dark in here, bro. What are you doing?"  
"Nii-chan, doshita? Wata-wa tsukaremashita, gomen'nasai." I flip on a light and invite him in to sit down.   
"Anata ga Dautaun o mitaidesu-ka?"  
"Un, hai."   
We sit down on the couch and I turn on the television and the PlayStation 4 to stream Gaki no Tsukai, Downtown. One of our favorite shows.   
"Nii, Daijoubudesu-ka? Anata ga yoku mite-imasen."  
"Un, genkidesu." But he continues to look at me concerned.   
I fall asleep again on the couch.


End file.
